new church life: march/april 2016
and NewChurch LIVE services on the internet, etc. We have so much to offer
the world – and it’s all available to people for free. But it all comes at a cost, and
it all needs support.
Mark’s “Begin a New Life” program is having an impact around the globe.
Among testimonies he has received:
• “This process really works. It gets me there.”
• “I’ve gotten more from this process in the first two months of using it
than from thousands of hours of counseling.”
• “I believe this process is the salvation of marriage.”
The website – www.BeginaNewLife.info (capitals not needed) – has been
online since April 2013. It can be used individually, as a program for small
groups, for weekend or morning retreats, and as an ongoing support group.
As of April 18, 2015 the program is being pumped throughout the world,
with the help of a grant from Google for advertising—$10,000 dollars a month
for the life of the BNL non-profit organization. Mark identifies 39 target
audiences and says the website is averaging 300 hits a day. Since its outset in
2013 there have been more than 200,000 sessions on the site, reaching people
in more than 8,500 cities and 224 of 226 countries recognized by Google. And
since January 2015, the worksheets have been accessed almost 6,000 times; 180
in the past week alone.
This is just one more way that personal initiative and new technology are
helping people connect with the Lord and begin a new life.
Curtis Childs: Swedenborg and YouTube
Curtis says he grew up feeling that reading the Writings put his mind in
a special light, that Swedenborg was “really cool,” and that the teachings in
the Writings offer us all a way to get through life. His challenge was how to
make everyone familiar with the Writings and Swedenborg without becoming
a minister himself.
Out of that has developed his highly popular one-hour “Off The Left Eye”
videos produced by the Swedenborg Foundation.
More than 10,000 people are tuning in to watch these videos – either
live or from archives – and that audience is growing rapidly. He sees this as a
massive reading group, with people all over the world tuning into Swedenborg
and the teachings from the Lord.
The question that motivates him is whether these interactions are just
superficial or meaningful – and if they are not meaningful, what’s the point?
But they get immediate feedback while each session is running, and that has
been overwhelmingly positive. People are saying such things as: “Thank you
for being a positive influence in my life”; “This is what I have been searching
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